A customer recently asked me if we have a template that we use to sign people up for chair massages at a convention.
When it comes to chair massage at conventions, this is usually the situation: There are a lot of people lining up or milling around waiting for their turn to receive a chair massage from any of the massage therapists who are all working in the same general vicinity at the event. So there needs to be a way to facilitate sign up that is both orderly and fair. It is very important to prevent feelings of injustice at chair massage events. The last thing we want is for a participant to perceive that someone “cut” in front of them or got ahead of them in line. Also, scheduling appointments for specific times can be futile because there are usually so many other activities/distractions offered inside the exhibit hall of the convention that most participants easily forget and don’t show up for their appointment times. Our lo-tech solution is to use a good ol’ fashioned paper sign-up sheet.
I especially like the pic that I have attached here because it shows a table in front of the t
herapists upon which is the clipboard with sign-up sheets.
Our current standard policy (what I instruct the therapists to do) for these types of events is as follows:
To facilitate order, use the Non-Scheduled Event (First-Come, First-Served) Sign-up Sheets. They hold 40 names per page. Participants may be lining up or milling around waiting for their turn to receive a massage. Please put the attached Non-Scheduled Event Sign-up Sheet on one clipboard* for all of you to share. As each participant lines up for a massage, instruct them to print their name on the sign-up sheet. Because there are usually a lot of other activities that may distract participants at a convention (especially inside an exhibit hall), some participants are going to sign up, walk off and forget to come back. Just call out the name of whoever is next on the list. If they are not present, go to the next name. If they show up later, have mercy on them and give them a chair massage ahead of those who signed up after them. Put YOUR initials to the left of the name of each participant YOU give a massage to. Have each participant sign the One-Time Event Acknowledgment Form (to satisfy Texas requirements for informed consent) at YOUR INDIVIDUAL STATIONS.
*IMPORTANT: You can use the 2-clipoard approach to maintain order at an event. Have the participants sign up on only one clip board (as per our usual policy). However, you should place all the “full” pages on a second clipboard (with the most recently filled-out pages at the bottom of the stack). This will give you easy access to the names of people who have already signed up without you having to share (fight over) the clipboard by which more participants are attempting to sign up.
NOTE to Event/Meeting Planners: You may also want assign one of your event helpers (if you have one to spare) to both facilitate the sign-up process and direct each participant to the next available therapist. You don’t have to do this. It is just a suggestion. Otherwise, one of the therapists working the event will act as the point-person, telling participants how to sign up and what to expect. As each therapist becomes available, they will walk to the clipboard and call out the next participant on the list and so on…
Here is another pic of a similar type of event with all the therapists dressed in black, as is our current dress code policy.
PLEASE NOTE: Not all conventions at which we provide chair massage are like the one described above. But most of them are. Occasionally the event/meeting planner may decide to have the chair massages scheduled by appointment. This works fine as long as their are no other “distractions” for the participants. We recently provided chair massage by appointment at a meeting of around 300 sales representatives. There was no exhibit hall. Participants booked their appointments each day on sign-up sheets provided at each therapist’s work station. Over the 3.5-day event 162 appointment were booked. 128 participants showed up for their appointments. 34 were no-shows, That is a participation rate of 79%. When it come scheduling chair massages by appointment, we have 4 options:
Here are a couple links with more info about offering chair massage at conventions: https://www.seizethedaymassage.com/conventions/ and https://www.seizethedaymassage.com/promotions/
Tom Darilek, LMT, MTI, CEP
Events Coordinator; Wellness Programs Manager
Seize the Day Chair Massage Services
512-327-2284, ext. 8
tom@seizethedaymassage.com
www.seizethedaymassage.com
How many chair massage therapists can you fit into an Exhibit hall? Our record is 10. 😊
